A time for vision

Turner’s proposed temporary tax hike is justified, reasonable and fiscally responsible.

If J.J. Watt asked you to give him 4 bucks for a Hurricane Harvey relief fund, would you scoff and call him “tone deaf?”

Of course not. More than 200,000 people gladly gave their money to Watt’s wildly successful relief fund, forking over a jaw-dropping $37 million. God bless them all.

But when Mayor Sylvester Turner asks for a temporary tax hike after Harvey that would cost the average homeowner about $4-a-month, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt calls him “callous” and “beyond tone deaf.” No surprise there, because Bettencourt has built a successful political career out of opposing tax increases. But fighting this negligible surcharge to help pay the bills after a natural disaster is just flat wrong.

Let’s remember not only what our city’s police officers, firefighters and public works employees went through during the storm but also what it will cost. First responders worked sleepless days and nights rescuing Houstonians trapped in floodwaters, saving countless citizens — and earning still untold hours of overtime pay. On top of that, anybody who’s driven through inundated neighborhoods can attest that the city government faces a massive debris cleanup bill. Those are just a couple of the most obvious expenses unexpectedly dumped on the city along with Harvey’s rainfall.

Turner first brought up the temporary tax hike plan two weeks ago in a meeting with the Chronicle editorial board, proposing an emergency 8.9 percent increase to help Houston recover from Hurricane Harvey. That would have brought the city’s tax rate back up where it was four years ago, before a voter-imposed limit on property tax collections started forcing rate cuts. Turner later lowered his request by half, saying that an infusion of federal emergency funds cut the amount the city needs to collect from local taxpayers.

Of course, the mayor could have danced around this fiscal obligation. He could have floated the idea of a bond issue to cover hurricane cleanup costs, basically borrowing the money and dumping the debt on another generation of taxpayers. But putting these expenses on a credit card would have been financially irresponsible.

An emergency and temporary tax hike, which is allowed under the city’s revenue cap, would cost the average homeowner about $50 for one year. Unless your blood boils about the idea of any tax increase under any circumstance, that’s not an unreasonable price to pay for cleaning up after the biggest natural disaster in Houston’s history. And yet, some people who apparently think storm debris will just magically disappear from our streets are against it.

A moment like this in Houston’s history calls for builders, not obstructionists. After the Great Storm of 1900, Galveston County decided to spend the money to build a seawall. The Texas Legislature then agreed to a combination of tax abatements and bond sales financing a massive project that literally lifted up most of the city. Congressman Tom Ball reacted to the 1900 storm with a persistence that led the local and federal governments to finance the dredging of the Houston Ship Channel, a visionary act that sealed our city’s destiny.

That’s how great leaders respond to a crisis like the natural disaster that has befallen Houston. Instead of scoring political points by appealing to a loud crowd of anti-tax activists, we urge City Council members to support the mayor’s proposed temporary tax hike. It’s justified, it’s reasonable and it’s fiscally responsible.

If J.J. Watt can raise $37 million from around the world to help our city rebuild, we’re confident most Houston taxpayers are more than willing to do their part. Our elected officials should have the courage to lead the way.

An emergency and temporary tax hike, which is allowed under the city’s revenue cap, would cost the average homeowner about $50 for one year.